Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender. I also do not own By the Light by some1ders13 on DeviantArt, which heavily inspired this piece. [The 'Yah know Toph, you're pretty cute'/'You had cactus juice didn't you?' dialogue is taken from the picture. I don't own that either then.] I also don't own the right to the italicized part under the title, that is from a song and belongs to the artist of said song. Or whoever wrote the lyrics. Whatever. Despite the fact that titles are not copyrighted, I did get the title 'The Possibility of Fireflies' from a book of the same name whose plot doesn't resemble this even slightly. Wow that was a hecka lotta disclaiming…

Notes: An exercise in writing dialogue. Dialogue is one of my absolute favorite things to write. But it's hard to write believable dialogue between Sokka and Toph. o.O Which means I need practice. It's also a chance for me to flaunt my Tokka shipper-ness. Yay!

Cookies to anyone who knows where the italicized portion under the title is from. First person to guess right gets to request a story. Has to be in the Avatar fandom. Can be any pairing (I write yaoi too!) or genre. Give me the basics of the storyline and other pertinent info. (This is also to test how many people actually read the notes.)

The Possibility of Fireflies

out on the street out in the moonlight damnit it feels too right

"Like fireflies," Sokka says into Toph's ear. The smell of hard liquor and something vaguely plant-like wafts into her nostrils. Either he is leaning on her or she is leaning on him―she's not sure which―and it might be just a little too close for comfort. The hand rest on her hip tightens marginally. Perhaps it isn't too close.

"What are like fireflies?" she says. Sokka is heavy. It must be him leaning on her. Must be. So she can't let him go. Obviously he'd collapse. Yes, that's a good excuse.

"No, I like fireflies. They're pretty."

"That means a lot to me, Sokka. A whole lot. Because, you know, I can see these pretty things."

"Really? But they're fly…you need to stop doing that."

"It's been seven years since we met. You should be used to it by now."

He nods amiably against her neck. Definitely him leaning on her.

Suddenly he swings his body around. They both slam to a halt, his arms draped casually over her shoulders as he leans right up in her face. "Ya know Toph, you're pretty cute."

"You had cactus juice, didn't you?" she says, finally getting what that plant smell from earlier was.

"'Course I did. So did you."

That's true.

"But I'm not saying stupid stuff."

"It's not stupid," he insists. "You're so cute."

"I'm the greatest earthbender in the world. The only metalbender. The feared leader of the Zhanxin Dai Li. I am not cute."

He stumbles forward and presses clumsy lips to her's. She vaguely thinks that a 22 year old with a couple of ex girlfriends should be able to kiss better than this. Because it's not good. At all.

Except it sort of is, once she gets past the smell of liquor and the way he's sort of using her as a support. It's even a little…romantic.

He breaks away. "You're like fireflies."

Like the kiss, it means nothing and everything.

She covers that with her usual sarcasm. "Heroes," she said importantly, "do not get drunk and stumble around Ba Sing Se to kiss random girls like morons."

"S'good that we're not heroes, then." Some slur, but not too noticeable. Sokka has never been a messy drunk, just a weird one. Statements like "It's the quenchiest." pop into mind.

"'Cos Aang's the hero for stopping Ozai."

"And Zuko stopped the crazy sister."

"With Sugar Queen."

"Yes, yes, with her."

"So technically Sugar Queen's a hero too."

Sokka stops and stares up into the starry sky. Toph shifts a little impatiently. "Yue was a hero," he whispers. "She saved us. All of us. Saved the world. Saved everything. And she was so beautiful. Very beautiful. More beautiful than Suki, even. Just so…perfect." He gulped down tears. "Do you…do you think that's why she died? Because she was too perfect?"

Toph coughs. Her throat feels unreasonably tight. "Sokka, nobody is perfect."

"We're not heroes though."

She blinks. "No…we're…not."

"That's good. Heroes can't kiss fireflies. I just want to kiss fireflies."

He swoops in, plants another kiss.

Toph is beginning to think she likes fireflies.

But he's already wandering away, stumbling every few feet and singing something that is surprisingly reminiscent of an Earth Kingdom lullaby. Toph rolls her eyes and follows after.

Maybe in the morning this will mean nothing. Because falling in love with your best-friend-turned-near-stranger is horribly cliché…unless you're both doing it.